Improvement in railway-rail joints



H. w. woonnwr. RAILWAY-RAIL JOINTS.

No. 194,755, Patented Aug. 28,1877."

IIG.1.

FIG'IQI are two bolts with nuts passing through the y and rests squarelyupon the'projection E of PATENT OFFICE.

HORACE W. WOODRUFF,

lMPROVEMENT IN RA OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

ILWAV-RAIL JOINTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 194,755, dated August28, 187-7 application filed July 14, 1877.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HORACE W. WOOD- RUFF, of Cincinnati, Hamiltoncounty, Ohio, have invented an Improvement in Railway- Rail Joints, ofwhich the following is a specification My invention relates to a new andimproved method of uniting rails on railway-tracks.

Where the rails are simply united bythe ordinary fish-plate, and spacesare allowed suflicient for the expansion and contraction of the rail, aheavy locomotive-wheel striking the end of the rail as it passes over itpresses it down somewhat, and occasions a jar as it strikes the. end ofthe contiguous rail.

My invention is designed to obviate this difficulty, and unite the railsin such a manner as to form a continuous rail, over which the trainpasses without jar. I

In my drawings, Figure 1 represents aside view of the device, showingthe rails united. Fig. 2 represents a longitudinal section of the sametaken horizontally. Fig. 3 represents the rails disunited, and shows thepeculiar construction of the contiguous ends,

A and B represent, respectively, the contiguous ends of the rails thatare to be united. C Crepresent the ordinary fish-plates. D D

fish-plates and rails, making the ordinary joints. E representsahorizontal projection or tenon, formed atthe end of the rail, and madewith shoulders 42 e e, and which fits into a corresponding horizontalrecess, f f f,

in theend of rail B. This tenon is made horizontal, so that the part Foverlapping onto the projectionsE of therail A, fills the space the railA.

It has been attempted to unite rails by tongue and recess arrangedvertically at the end of the rail, but the details were difi'erent fromthis here described, and the device was not a success, as it presented anarrow surface on the top of the rail that was liable to become brokenor wedged together, and it did not prevent one rail from sinking lowerthan the other.

By my invention the top of the rail remains whole and firm, and in theexpansion and contraction there is no interval made between the rails,but there is a continuous even rail, the tongue preventing one fromsinking below the other.

The enlargements H H may be omitted, if desired, and the device can beused either with or without the fish-plates.

I intend to make this tongue and recess upon the respective ends of therails bycutting out the parts with a die after the rail is finished.

I claim as my invention- 1. The horizontal tongue E and correspondingrecess F in the webs of the contiguous ends of the railway-rails, theheads and bases of which are of the usual form, with squarely abuttingends, substantially asv and for the purpose Specified.

2. The combination of horizontal tongue E and corresponding recess Fwith the fishplates C C, as and for the purposes described.

HORACE W. WOODRUFF.

Witnesses:

J EBEMIAH F. TWOHIG, ARTHUR STERN.

